The development of therapeutic agents (e.g., biological drugs) is often hampered by short half-lives. The biological half-life or elimination half-life of a substance is the time it takes for a substance (for example a metabolite, drug, signaling molecule, radioactive nuclide, or other substance) to lose half of its pharmacologic, physiologic, or radiologic activity. As a result of the short half-life, patients are often administered higher dosages more frequently, which may lead to reduced compliance, higher costs and greater risks of side effects.
Extended-release products are designed to prolong the absorption of drugs with short half-lives, thereby allowing longer dosing intervals while minimizing fluctuations in serum drug levels. Current strategies used for extending half-lives are those that increase hydrodynamic volume (PEGylation) or those that use FcRn-mediated recycling (albumin fusions). Attachment of polypeptides or lipophilic constituents to drugs has also been used to extend the half-life of a biological agent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,268,343; U.S. Pat. No. 5,750,497; U.S. Pat. No. 8,129,343).
The present disclosure provides modified therapeutic agents (mTAs) for improving the biological, chemical, physiologic, pharmacologic, pharmacokinetic, and/or pharmacodynamic properties of a therapeutic agent.